UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn was back in court on Friday after he failed to undergo a court-ordered mental health evaluation following several arrests over the past year.
Penn was originally arrested on two separate charges of abuse of a family or household member — his mother — who later filed a restraining order against him. He was also arrested for violating that restraining order.
In total, Penn was arrested six times in 2025, including a separate misdemeanor for third-degree assault with that court
case still pending.
In his latest hearing, Penn blamed his attorney for not informing him about the mental health evaluation while claiming his last contact with the court-appointed public defender came back in October 2025. Penn claimed it was a third party reviewing an online court docket who finally informed him about the mental health evaluation he was ordered to undergo.
In filings made with the court, Penn asked the judge to dismiss his current attorney so he could retain private counsel.
Penn also requested that Judge Peter Kubota recuse himself from the case as well and be replaced by a different judge. In his statement to the court, Penn questioned Kubota’s impartiality in the case while claiming that he attempted to file a motion for the judge to recuse himself and also reached out to his chambers directly but received no response.
“Your honor, I hear what you’re saying,” Penn said during the hearing (via Hawaii News Now). “I’ve been trying to get in touch with — I tried to contact your chambers because I mentioned in the last time I was here about recusing you for the case and about getting a different counsel. But I can’t get through. I can’t get through to you guys.”
Kubota ultimately ordered Penn to speak directly to his court-appointed attorney, and if he was still requesting new counsel, a separate hearing would get set up to decide that.
The judge extended the deadline for Penn to receive the mental health evaluation with the doctor examining him given until Feb. 23 to file a written report to the court. Penn is then due back in front of the judge on March 2 for the next hearing.
After Penn was initially arrested on the abuse allegations, his mother Lorraine Shin filed and received a restraining order against her son. In the paperwork, Shin claimed that she feared Penn was dealing with serious mental health issues after he repeated stated that he believed his family had been murdered and replaced with imposters.
“I believe my son [B.J. Penn] is suffering from Capgras delusional syndrome (a psychiatric disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, other close family member has been replaced by an identical imposter),” Shin told police when filing for the restraining order. “He believes I’m an imposter who has killed his family to gain control of the family assets.”
Penn is expected to now undergo the mental health evaluation with the judge deciding the next steps in his case when the hearing is held in March.
